The debate of whether to allow foreign nationals to buy property in Canada has been going on for decades. Diane Francis, a columnist with the Financial Post is the latest person to bring up the subject. A noted right-winger, she resurfaced the idea, with even more restrictions.

FirstLine is doing away with business-for-self lending. Starting February 1st, there will be no new applications accepted for what is known as stated income programs. There will also be a cap on maximum loan amount, set for $1 million. The firm sent an email out to its customers advising them to get any proposals in prior to that date. They also noted that the Brand-to-Brand program is not affected.

The National Energy Board has just approved increasing the dock capacity at Burnaby’s Westridge Terminal to accommodate more oil being shipped out of the province. A group of eight British Columbia mayors, from Vancouver, Victoria and elsewhere on the coast are requesting more studies before this increase in oil shipments goes through. They are also requesting the public be fully informed and consulted before any increase is implemented.

Lotus Chung, a candidate for Burnaby Council as well as a realtor with the Sutton Group, West Coast Realty, had her real estate license suspended for 21 days by British Columbia’s Real Estate Council. The citation was for professional misconduct, having to do with a sale dating back to November of 2007.

It seems that the closer your office development in Metro Vancouver is to a Sky Train station, the lower your vacancy rate. That also means you can command higher rents. Developers are seriously looking at this trend and building accordingly. One example of this is the three office towers expected to come online in 2013, located in New Westminster. These will be next to the Sapperton and New Westminster Sky Train stations, and will offer class ”A” leasing inventory.

It is once again time for Burnaby to elect a new mayor.  That city’s election office just released its list of candidates this past Friday, and there are four in the race. Mayor Derek Corrigan, representing the Burnaby Citizens Association is seeking re-election. Challengers include Tom Tao, representing TEAM Burnaby, Allen Hutton and Sylvia Gung, both running as independents.

Vancouver has already proven itself as having the most expensive housing in the country. Now the numbers prove that as far as business leases go, Vancouver is also on the top end of the market. Montreal, for example, has business properties listed from $50 to $60 per square foot. In Vancouver, that same property could easily cost you $120 per square foot. Granted, the available properties in Montreal tend to be older, but that is the nature of that city.

This past Thursday there was a vote on whether British Columbia should be getting a new municipal auditor-general. Thanks to the overwhelming no votes of various provincial mayors and councillors, that will probably happen, but not without protest. It seems most of the political leaders in the province don’t trust provincial leadership.

Vancouver’s housing prices are the highest in the nation. We also know that the Vancouver area housing market is starting to slow down a bit. Despite these apparently contradicting facts, most economists do not believe that the city is headed for a housing bubble with an unhappy ending.

Burnaby is getting a flashy new condominium tower at Willingdon Avenue and Kingsway. Dale and Colin Bosa, from the self-named Bosa properties did the honors at the groundbreaking ceremony this past week, and now it’s up to the heavy machinery and construction workers to finish the job.

Although Vancouver enjoyed its most active August in 16 years in terms of home listings, the sales did not quite follow. Per new data from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, the average price for a typical home that was sold in this time period increased by 8.5 percent to a total of $625,578.

Imagine a hockey game that lasted 10 days. Imagine being one of the 39 women that between them played for over 243 hours and broke the previous world record set in Edmonton by an hour and five minutes. And that other record was set by men.

When some Burnaby firefighters went to New York to participate in the 2011 World Police and Fire Games, they didn’t expect to be in the bulls-eye of hurricane Irene. Nor did they expect to see Times Square, usually abuzz with people, empty enough to play street hockey on a Saturday night. Let’s just say it wasn’t your average visit to the Big Apple.

This coming Friday will be decision day concerning the controversial Harmonized Sales Tax, or HST. The 12 percent tax went into effect over a year ago, the brainchild or former premier Gordon Campbell. Basically they took the two separate taxes, the Federal Tax and the Provincial Tax and rolled them into one. The thing is, more goods and services were subject to the tax.

Simon Fraser University was to have sanitized the ground where it once stored its winter road-salt. But according to the Stoney Creek Environment Committee, that hasn’t happened yet. The university has gone ahead and built a new facility that will keep salt from leeching in to the creek, but the old site is still contaminated, and that is an issue.

Vancouver’s TransLink transportation system badly needs expansion and is trying to find the $70 million it needs to do so. The expansion also needs to get approval. Right now TransLink notes that the system has enough funding to maintain the existing system, but nothing beyond that.

Adding a legal suite to your property is one way of investing some cash into a building you already own and getting a monthly income in return. Legal suites can be built in a loft, a basement or in some unused part of your existing property. Yes, you will be paying for the renovations, which in the current economic climate seems to go against the belt tightening mentality. But, since you will be getting the money back, it is really investing.

Burnaby survived the economic downturn and even managed to rebound nicely from those down in the dumps days. But, according to a report put out by Avison Young, the community may start seeing higher office vacancy rates within the next year. Right now the office vacancy rate is 9.7 percent. The average for the lower mainland is about 7.6 percent. Richmond has the highest in the region, coming in at 22.9 percent. Burnaby has Metro Vancouver’s second largest real estate office market.

Home sales this past July slowed in British Columbia. Despite that, comparing July of this year with the same month in 2010 showed a 12.9 percent increase in sales, as well as an average price that is roughly ten percent higher than last year.

British Columbia’s Okanagan area is drawing the interest, and the checkbooks, of Albertans looking to invest in real estate. The area is scenic, a haven for those loving the outdoors and has the added bonus of being one of Canada’s premier wine producing zones. The frosting on that cake is that fact that real estate prices, particularly in the Kelowna condo and townhouse market, have been drastically reduced.

Sometimes it is difficult to figure out what your time is really worth. And, equally, it is sometimes difficult to make the decision to do it yourself or call in a professional. This is true in many occupations and/or projects, but none so much as in real estate investment.
Those that are gifted in the ways of all things mechanical may find that putting in the hours needed to get a home ready for sale if not pure pleasure, an honorable occupation. Others who have a hard time keeping the staple gun pointed away from anything valuable may be wise to call in the troops, so to speak.

Industrial real estate is still a hot market in Burnaby. In the last few months, some of the largest deals within Metro Vancouver happened in this area, notes Avison Young’s Kyle Blyth, a sales and leasing associate in the industrial sector. The largest transaction was the sale of a 178,360 square foot property at 7867 – 7890 Express Way. The property was spread out over 27.12 acres and was sold to the PIRET Company. The seller was Canadian Freightways Ltd. They leased the property back from the buyer.

The mayors of Metro Vancouver serving on the transportation council held an emergency meeting regarding the Evergreen Line this past Wednesday. Derek Corrigan, mayor of Burnaby, happened to be out of town. He was not pleased with the group’s decision.  The group approved a funding proposal that included property taxes.

Theatre Under the Stars is celebrating its 65th season with performances of “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Anything Goes” at Stanley Park’s Malkin Bowl outdoor theatre. The shows will run every other night beginning at 8pm until August 20th.  Three local performers, Dave Campbell, Angela King, and Aaron Lau, all from Burnaby, will be sharing the stage in these performances.